Mental health campaigners welcome efforts to improve Norfolk & Suffolk services
Clive Lewis has renewed calls for a public inquiry into the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
Local mental health campaigners have told us that local NHS mental health services need to be broken up, to overcome long-term systemic failures
It comes after Clive Lewis wrote to the Heath Secretary calling on him to help set up a public inquiry into the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust.
"No serious action has been taken"
Mark Harrison is from 'Campaign to save mental services in Norfolk & Suffolk'.
He says those in power need to take responsibility:
"It's a whole system failure. It's a failure of local healthcare bodies, Ministers, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS England and NHS East of England and improvement".
"But, the CQC have kind of done their job. They keep on failing the NSFT but the other parts of the system keep failing to address that crisis and put in measures to transform the situation.
"So, it means that more people continue to die and more people don't get good services".
"No serious action has been taken, there's no new investment in mental health services and it seems to us that the system is just closing ranks.
"The levels of inaction, complacency and lack of urgency are astounding, and that's not acceptable."
"Critical to delivering justice"
The MP for Norwich North said:
“Long-term and systemic failure has plagued the Trust. NSFT has spent seven years in special measures and has been rated ‘inadequate’ 4 times since 2017 – the worst record in the UK.
"A public inquiry into that systemic failure is critical to delivering justice for those who have lost their lives and had their lives ruined, the families who have lost loved ones, and the staff who have been put in an impossible position.
"A public inquiry is also essential to ensuring that broader lessons are learned so that such failures cannot happen again at any mental health Trust in the UK.”
What have the NSFT said about all of this?
An NSFT spokesman said:
“For far too long we have not provided the high quality accessible mental health services the people of Norfolk and Suffolk deserve.
"We are fully focused on making improvements and working with our partners across Norfolk and Suffolk to make changes quickly.
“If a public inquiry takes place, we will of course fully cooperate.”